Calibre arbitrarily removing my books

[C-novice]

I am using Calibre 2.58 on Linux Mint Cinnamon 17.2 64bit.

I have just over 1000 books in Calibre and I noticed at times I go to find a book and the book is no longer there.

I have to re-add the book from my stored Bookfile. The last time this happened was last night and I had only added the book to Calibre a few months ago.

I really can't recall if this ever happened when I had Calibre in Windows.

Any suggestions, please and thanks?

[kovidgoyal]

calibre never automatically removed books, the only exception being expired news downloads. If your books are disappearing then it is because either you or some software on your computer is deleting them.

[theducks]

Run Library Maintanence:

If it reports Missing FORMATS (calibre believes those should be there), Something OUTSIDE Calibre is removing files, because the DB still shows the Formats that you had for the book.
If Calibre was used, those books would have been in step with the DB and no error.
If the entire book record (and book formats), there would be no error AND Someone did tell Calibre to 'delete' that title

The tag News can have an auto cleanup if enabled.
Normal books should not have that tag used

[gbm]

Originally Posted by C-novice

I am using Calibre 2.58 on Linux Mint Cinnamon 17.2 64bit.

I have just over 1000 books in Calibre and I noticed at times I go to find a book and the book is no longer there.

I have to re-add the book from my stored Bookfile. The last time this happened was last night and I had only added the book to Calibre a few months ago.

I really can't recall if this ever happened when I had Calibre in Windows.

Any suggestions, please and thanks?

You need to click on menu --accessories--Disks
click on the more actions icon them run SMART Data & self test.
If your disk is going bad it will tell you.

What you describe is a disk getting bad sectors, I would say that ebooks are not the only things going missing.

This should be at least a monthly check .

Running calibre 2.58 on Linux Mint Cinnamon 17.3 64bit. and never lost an ebook except by operator error.

bernie

[C-novice]

Kovid, theduck

Thanks for replying. I'm sure I'm not deleting them. I just have to figure out which program may be the culprit.

thanks again.

[BetterRed]

@C-novice - have you checked the Trash?

If you have you turned off the Remove book confirmation message you may have inadvertently deleted the book - happens quite often. Coming from Windows you might expect a confirm message because it's message is not dismiss-able, that said the confirm delete can be dismissed in Calibre on Windows.

An extra click or keystroke occasionally is a lot less bothersome that having nagging doubts about the software when something goes missing, especially if one doesn't keep the originals like you do, or take regular backups as many don't, or if like me, you empty the Trash regularly.

BR

[C-novice]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

@C-novice - have you checked the Trash?

If you have you turned off the Remove book confirmation message you may have inadvertently deleted the book - happens quite often. Coming from Windows you might expect a confirm message because it's message is not dismiss-able, that said the confirm delete can be dismissed in Calibre on Windows.

An extra click or keystroke occasionally is a lot less bothersome that having nagging doubts about the software when something goes missing, especially if one doesn't keep the originals like you do, or take regular backups as many don't, or if like me, you empty the Trash regularly.

BR

Thanks BetterRed,
I empty my trash quite often. Not sure where to locate 'Remove book confirmation' so that may not be it?

[C-novice]

Originally Posted by gbm

You need to click on menu --accessories--Disks
click on the more actions icon them run SMART Data & self test.
If your disk is going bad it will tell you.

What you describe is a disk getting bad sectors, I would say that ebooks are not the only things going missing.

This should be at least a monthly check .

Running calibre 2.58 on Linux Mint Cinnamon 17.3 64bit. and never lost an ebook except by operator error.

bernie

The SMART Data & self test, may have something to it. I have to first understand what all those Attributes mean.

Yet, the Overall Assessment =Disk OK, Self-Assessment = Threshold not exceeded, Self-test Result = successful. Does this signifies an OK disk or does the line by line Attributes needs taken into consideration. Their final Assessment all says OK anyway.

So far though, it's only those books in Calibre, I noticed had gone missing.

[kovidgoyal]

When you say the book is missing do you mean that the entire book entry is missing from the calibre book list or only the actual book file?

[C-novice]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

When you say the book is missing do you mean that the entire book entry is missing from the calibre book list or only the actual book file?

The books are usually missing from Calibre's book list, i.e. the interface. It never entered my mind to actually to go to /home/xxx/Calibre Library to check if they are missing from there as well.

I just go to the folders where I download my books when I buy them and re-add the missing book to Calibre.

I could have misunderstood the question - I think that's a yes, the entire book entry in the Library is missing.

[C-novice]

Originally Posted by theducks

Run Library Maintanence:

If it reports Missing FORMATS (calibre believes those should be there), Something OUTSIDE Calibre is removing files, because the DB still shows the Formats that you had for the book.
If Calibre was used, those books would have been in step with the DB and no error.
If the entire book record (and book formats), there would be no error AND Someone did tell Calibre to 'delete' that title

The tag News can have an auto cleanup if enabled.
Normal books should not have that tag used

LM check 'found no errors'. However, checking if files match DB info shows other stuff like, Extra book format, Invalid titles, but Missing Formats does not have an arrow point, so that seems to be fine at least.

thanks.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by C-novice

Thanks BetterRed,
I empty my trash quite often. Not sure where to locate 'Remove book confirmation' so that may not be it?

When you delete a book - you 'should' see the following



Unless you unchecked the 'Show this warning again' box on a prior occasion.

In that case if you inadvertently do a delete the delete is done, no questions asked. Example - you accidentally tap the Del key on the numeric pad (usually between the '0/Insert' and 'Enter'), or you tap the Del key when you wanted End (IIRC they're adjacent on some Toshiba laptops)

To restore the confirmations click the Reset all disabled confirmation messages button in Preferences->Behaviour

BR

[C-novice]

@BetterRead,
Oh, that. I never unchecked the 'Show this warning . . .'

Considering the number of books (so far about 8 or 10) I noticed gone, I can't imagine me inadvertently hitting the del key for each and as I said, that box hasn't been unchecked.

Thing is, I never took it really seriously. As initially, I noticed the missing books were ones that were purchased several years ago. At first I noticed that the covers of some of those are gone (-still have books in the Library that no longer have covers). And then when I can't find the book in the Library I would just go to my Books folder and re-add them to Calibre.

It was only when I realized that newer purchased ones go missing from the Library as well, that I started taking notice.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by C-novice

Oh, that. I never unchecked the 'Show this warning . . .'

- wise non-move!

Originally Posted by C-novice

Considering the number of books (so far about 8 or 10) I noticed gone, I can't imagine me inadvertently hitting the del key for each and as I said, that box hasn't been unchecked.

Agreed 110%.

Originally Posted by C-novice

Thing is, I never took it really seriously. As initially, I noticed the missing books were ones that were purchased several years ago. At first I noticed that the covers of some of those are gone (-still have books in the Library that no longer have covers). And then when I can't find the book in the Library I would just go to my Books folder and re-add them to Calibre.

• Is the library synced to cloud storage - e.g. dropbox, google drive etc?
  
• What OS are you using (Windows, OSX or Linux) and what file system is the library on?
  
• Is the library on the system drive ?

Maybe the folders/files weren't deleted, but moved - have you tried searching for the lost files. On windows I would run Recuva (3rd party util) to look for any clues.

It's hard to believe some other program would be stealing/deleting books and covers randomly - except maybe a dodgy backup file synch process.

BR

[theducks]

Originally Posted by C-novice

LM check 'found no errors'. However, checking if files match DB info shows other stuff like, Extra book format, Invalid titles, but Missing Formats does not have an arrow point, so that seems to be fine at least.

thanks.

Those kinds say that the DB is NOW out of sync with the file system.

You renamed the Author or title, but there was something interfering with the transaction (copy and delete) . (cloud sync, user has file open, A/V scan...)

Looking closely at those errors may give you additional clues
Non-ASCII characters, Multi-OS use of the same Library (OS file name issues).

Having the Library on Network drives can cause these issues (Or leaving the sync active when using Calibre)